


"The Game is Just the Start, Bro"

by cosmivoyager



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Silly, this is my first fic i have no idea how tags work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24399859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmivoyager/pseuds/cosmivoyager
Summary: Benrey collects cartoon cat comics, Tommy's soda is missing, and Benrey thinks he accidentally made a friend over a video game.
Relationships: Benrey & Tommy Coolatta, Benrey/Tommy Coolatta
Comments: 37
Kudos: 237





	"The Game is Just the Start, Bro"

There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about that day, other than the fact that it was a Monday. There were no real weekends at Black Mesa since everyone just worked straight through the rest of society's regular day-offs. And Black Mesa security positions especially never got a day's vacation.

But Mondays always reminded him of his favorite lazy orange cat who starred in the funnies section of the free newspapers, which were always left untouched in the front lobby of Black Mesa. He was pretty sure he was the only one in the entire facility who bothered to read them, and even collected the daily strips. Mentally reviewing the box of them he kept in his locker, he grinned as images of cartoon cats danced through his mind. How that stinky lil bastard would always piss off his exceptionally pathetic owner, made him laugh, and somehow he could relate. He muttered a joke to himself followed by a loud and raspy cackle, and it alerted the other guard who was approaching his guard post.

“What’s so funny?”

“Huh? Whuh?” his laughter stopped, and he immediately forgot what he was thinking about, like someone just wiped clean the doodle-pro board that was his brain.

The other guard, completely used to and tired of his coworker’s blank-slate stare and unpredictable behavior, rolled his eyes and shrugged,  
“Nevermind. It’s your break, Henrey.”

  
“It’s Benrey.”

  
The guard hardly acknowledged the correction, and continued, “Just be back in 30 minutes.”

  
And so Benrey left his post, started walking down the dimly illuminated hallway, doing his occasional stops to ask random people about some unheard of video game service, and wandered to nowhere in particular as usual.

\--

It was about 10 minutes into his break when Benrey found himself in the recreational part of the floor he was stationed in. He usually came through here to watch his grainy, static reflection that appeared in the security guard television feeds, and he liked that his reflection looked different every day. But to his dismay the televisions that hung in the security office were turned off for some unknown reason, so his plans of standing completely still for the next 20 minutes were a bust. However, the security office was adjacent to the employee break room, which was usually alive with at least a few lost souls, so he figured his next course of action was to bug anyone in there to see if someone could get his TV's fixed.

The break room itself was small, plain and un-noteworthy, but Benrey made note of the details anyway. In one corner were two soda machines, which were mostly out of order, and one scientist was neck-deep in it, fishing for it’s quarters, muttering curses and slamming the front of it in hopes to dislodge the change inside. In the opposite corner was a mini fridge and microwave, both of which were rather dirty, caked in grime and age-old radiated food leftovers, with two scientists who were arguing over who’s turn it was to use to heat up their sad little frozen lunches from home. The rest of the break room was filled with the most basic of furniture including two small lunch tables and the uneven number of folding chairs surrounding them, some of them were clearly worn from years of use. Finally, the last of the room's decorative features was a small billboard, pinned to peeling wallpaper, adorned with safety procedure papers printed out in about size 2 font. It was probably to save ink and paper, but it made them completely illegible, unless you spent a really long time scrutinizing over the details. To be honest, Black Mesa was pretty depressing, but this was one of the most depressing parts of it all.

Benrey figured he’d choose his first victims, and stepped towards the two scientists arguing over the microwave.  
He looked directly at the space in between them and muttered, “Hey.”

The two were too occupied with their argument to notice Benrey’s rockstar conversation starter.

  
“Hey,” he repeated.

  
The first scientist, deaf to Benrey's call, was gripping the handle of the microwave with white-knuckled fists, “Jacob, The only way I’m letting go of this _damn_ microwave first is when you pry it from my cold _dead_ hands.”

  
The other pushed his glasses up on his face and spat back, “Then how are you going to put your food in, _Phil_?”

  
“God gave me _two_ hands.”

  
Jacob was picking at his frozen dinner plastic film impatiently, “Well, how are you going to remove your Kids Cuisine from the box!?”

  
Phil shook his head, “What do you mean?”

  
“Have you ever tried to open one of those boxes with just one hand? It’s impossible!”

  
“How hard can it be, it’s got the word “kid” in the title, I imagine all aspects of it is meant to be easy, especially opening!”  
  


Jacob glared down at Phil, “Then show me!”  
  


Benrey just stood and watched as the elderly man before him kept a tight grip on the microwave door with one hand, holding a box of Kids Cuisine in the other, looked it over strategically then immediately attacked it with his teeth, attempting to tear it to shreds.  
Jacob covered his face, “Oh for the _love_ of God, Phil.”

Benrey was so absorbed in the incredible scene unfolding before him, that he almost didn’t notice a light tap on his back from behind.

“Excuse me, can, can I squeeze by?”  
He glanced over his shoulder and saw a tall, lanky, and worried-looking scientist gazing down at him, who continued to speak, “Sorry, I need to grab my soda,” the scientist pointed, “they’re in the fridge.”

  
Benrey sidestepped, letting the other man through, to which the scientist said his thanks in a hurry. He didn’t really seem at all phased by the arguments of the others, who were now near-shouting level, which if it were to escalate even further, might break out into a physical fight. _Huh_ , Benrey thought, _if only there was someone like a security guard around to diffuse the situation._ But he remembered he was on lunch break so--

“Wh-Where’s my soda!?” came a horrified voice from the fridge.

Benrey looked over from his thoughts at the now even more worried-looking scientist before him.

“They were _here_ this morning! Who, who could have-- where could they be?!”

Benrey blinked, taking in the scientist's distress.  
The taller scientist approached the two older men arguing by the microwave, and asked in a panicked voice, “Have, have you seen my soda? They were in the fridge.”

The two arguing men lowered their fists from each other in a momentary ceasefire. It was Phil who spoke, “Your soda?”

  
The worried scientist frowned and nodded, “Yeah, I had three cans of cherry vanilla coke, and my, my name written on them in black permanent marker. Have you seen them? It’s my lunch for today.”

  
Phil, eyebrows lowered, looked absolutely perplexed, “Your...lunch?”

  
The tall scientist just nodded again, scratching the back of his short brown hair, not understanding the issue.

  
Jacob’s eyes widened, and interjected, “ _Oh_ , those were your sodas? Sorry, Phil here drank them.”

  
“But… my name, I wrote my name on them-”

  
Phil stomped his foot, “Oh, come _on_ Jacob, why are you throwing me under the bus like that?! You had some too!”

Phil turned back to the tall scientist, “Look, we just thought they were for everybody! This is the community fridge for a reason!” Phil was clearly worked up and was taking it out on the wrong guy.

  
Jacob, taking advantage of Phil’s distraction, moved towards the microwave with his food, ignoring the crushed-looking scientist’s face, “Yeah, we were thirsty and the soda machines are broken.”

  
Phil also broke the gaze from the tall scientist and yelped at Jacob, who had just succeeded to start heating up his tv dinner, and continued their bickering.

  
“O-oh…” the tall scientist wrung his hands. “That’s okay, I, I can find something else.” His entire posture slumped, making him seem at least one foot smaller.

Benrey watched as the tall scientist shuffled in place for a bit, eyes darting around the room, and when he made brief eye contact with Benrey he looked away again quickly. The guy clearly looked like he had no plan as to what to do next. Accepting defeat, the slouched scientist took a few steps away from the empty fridge and towards one of the lunch tables. He pulled out a metal folding chair rather loudly, whispered an apologetic “Sorry”, then sat down and stared at the floor.

For a moment, Benrey considered just leaving. He only had about 15 minutes of lunch left, and still had some fun and important things to do, like changing the wifi password for the entire IT department to an un-guessable combination of symbols and numbers, or put all the light switches in the building into the halfway position between on and off. But something made him stay. The more he looked at the sad man sitting alone in the chair that was far too small for him, the more his brain glued his feet to the floor.

He sighed. Benrey’s expression remained stable as he took a step towards the crumpled figure of the scientist in the chair, and leaned against the table, positioning himself directly across from him. The man in the chair didn’t look up; he was picking at one of the tails of his labcoat in deep thought. Benrey blinked, and folded his arms, “Hey.”

  
To Benrey’s surprise, the scientist across from him noticed, perked up, and looked up at him, “Oh, h-hello officer. Um... Am I in trouble?”

  
Benrey shook his head and spoke in blank monotone, “I’m on lunch break.”

  
“Oh…Me too.”

  
Benrey waited a few seconds to see if any other words would come out of the guy, but nothing happened. Unfortunately, Benrey was also a man of few words, so he smacked his lips for a few seconds before he managed to say, “Those guys, they took your soda.”

  
The man in front of him slumped even further into his chair, making it creak slightly, “Yeah…”

Benrey continued, “Doesn’t it… Aren’t you like, gonna do anything about it?”

“Huh?” Tommy’s eyes darted quickly to the direction of frustrated voices behind him.

Benrey took this moment to sit down, and felt more words flow through his mind as he focused on the man across from him, “You know like, get mad and stuff. They took your stuff man. Aren’t you gonna do anything?” He was really getting more invested in this than he should be, when he really should be asking about if this guy can fix a security camera instead. He pushed that thought down.

The scientist across from him, now meeting his gaze head-on, stared for a while in confusion, before looking away, “N… No. I can, I can always get a soda tomorrow.”

Benrey shook his head, “No man, you can’t let people walk all over you like that.”

The scientist’s eyes opened wide and looked back up to meet Benrey, “But that’s not what they tell us in our employee handbook, Mr. Officer.”

Benrey remained silent as Tommy continued, “It’s clearly stated in the handbook given at employee orientations, and through the Human Resources Department, that any and all conflicts should be avoided at all costs and conflicts that disrupt the, the valuable workflow of Black Mesa can even punishable by, by law!” A shout came from behind the two of them, as the microwave came unplugged.

Benrey changed the topic suddenly, “My name’s Benrey. What’s yours?”

The other man blinked and waited a few seconds before giving an answer, “Tommy.”

“Tommy. Have you ever gotten mad? Like, what’s your experience with violence.”

Tommy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, but then bowed his head in what seemed like intense concentration before he spoke. “One time I got really excited and crushed a soda can, once. On accident.”

“Okay.”

Tommy looked up, obviously in deep thought, and spoke with a bit more energy as his speech grew quicker, “and, and another time at a company meeting I broke a pencil I borrowed from, from Tony, because I was trying to copy all the slideshow slides but they were moving too fast, also on accident. But the good news is he has two pencils instead of one now.”

Benrey put his arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair, “Damn bro sounds like you really let loose on that one.”

Tommy showed a small grin, “Yeah I guess I really lost control there.”

“Is that all?”

“I-I guess…” He laughed but still looked worried. "Was, was that a test, Mr. Benrey?"

Benrey, in this rare occasion, shared a small smile with Tommy. “Nah, it's cool. That’s not bad.” He leaned forward now, and spoke in a slightly more firm voice, “Listen. I'm gonna show you how to really get mad. Getting mad makes people respect you, mean people are, they’re respected y'know?” Benrey was tapping the top of the desk. “Then people won't take your soda, or whatever, from you ever again, man.”

Tommy’s face grew worried with uncertainty, unsure if he really followed Benrey’s logic, “How, how will you do that, Mr. Benrey?”

Benrey grinned, reached into his vest, which seemed to hold everything he ever needed, and pulled out a single disc in a plastic case. “It’s called… Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for the PlayStation 2.”

\--

After Benrey talked to Tommy for roughly 20 minutes about the intricacies of the Super Monkey Ball franchise and how Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for the Playstation 2 is arguably the best game in the series, he realized offhandedly that he was way late in getting back to work. Tommy was surprisingly curious about what Benrey had to say, and asked questions, some even Benrey didn’t know the answers to. Tommy in these moments would eagerly make a note on how he would propose to look up his question on Wikipedia for next time.

Meanwhile, the two bickering scientists had long since left due to one of them running away with the entire microwave in his arms, so it was a bit easier to discuss plans in a quieter room. Benrey and Tommy both agreed to have Benrey drop off his extra PlayStation 2 in Tommy’s locker by the end of the day along with a memory card and controllers, as Benrey always had spare PlayStation 2’s in case of emergencies. Before leaving Tommy with the game, Benrey moved to the broken soda machine, stepped over the treasure-hunting scientist who was now passed out cold on the floor from exhaustion, and pried the front door of it open with his bare hands. He gutted a handful of sodas out of its insides and gave it to an ever-thankful Tommy, who was near to tears from the kind gesture.

Admittedly, giving someone he just met one of his most treasured games and a fistful of soda cans was a bit unusual, even for him, but Benrey didn’t want to think too much about what he felt. He just wanted to enjoy what was happening right now. Everyone he knew was always so absorbed in their own things, that they never really listened, but seeing Tommy’s smile wide on his face while nodding along to Benrey talk about something no one else would even bother to entertain, was… Different.

“Just practice the game a bit tonight and get used to the controls,” he instructed quietly while picking up the change out of the unconscious scientist's hands. Technically they were stolen property and he was a security guard after all; he was just doing his job. “Also just let yourself feel whatever you feel man it's okay, video games are one of those places you can kinda do that sometimes,” Benrey spoke as if from experience.

As Benrey got ready to leave the breakroom, Tommy held the disc in both his hands and asked, “Um… Mr. Benrey? Will this game really make me stronger? Do video games have the power to do that?”

Benrey stopped for a moment in the door, and looked back over his shoulder at Tommy. He actually had no idea what to say to him. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing giving this guy his stuff and why he was bothering to help him out. But despite it all, he felt like he should say something. He gave the smallest smile, threw up a lazy peace sign with his left hand, and quoted his favorite Playstation 3 slogan, “The game is just the start, bro.” He hoped it would work. Tommy blinked twice, then smiled, holding the game closer to his chest. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Benrey!” Clearly it did.

Benrey returned to his post, and stood through another berating from his higher-up. He thought about that cartoon cat and his human friend again, and how this morning the strip featured the two of them actually getting along, which even inside his extensive archived collection of strips, was incredibly rare. Benrey gave a small smile, drowning out the yelling of his superior, and secretly thought about how much he was looking forward to tomorrow’s lunch break.

\--

_Epilogue:_  
Tommy returned the next day, eagerly awaiting Benrey’s arrival in the breakroom. In advance, Tommy had done exactly what Benrey instructed him to do the day before, which was to wheel in one of the heavy CRT TV carts into the breakroom and set up the PlayStation 2, ready to play. Tommy had stayed up all night practicing, hoping that all his efforts would please his new friend. He waited nervously, bouncing his leg, and avoided the quizzical looks of the other scientists who wandered in and out of the small room. It felt like hours, but Tommy’s face immediately brightened up when he saw Benrey finally enter the room, who was absent-mindedly chewing on a paperclip.

Benrey gave him an awkward wave and small grin, then sat down in the seat next to Tommy in front of the TV. “Alright. Show me your skills man. This game is brutal. Makes even the best gamers cry.”

Tommy looked over at Benrey with a sheepish smile, “Does it make you cry, Mr. Benrey?”

Benrey stopped chewing his paperclip. “I dunno sometimes.”

Tommy turned back to the loading screen on the TV, “Wow, you must be a really good gamer.”

In preparation to exhibit his new gaming abilities, Tommy downed 3 energy sodas in under two minutes, then pressed start on the games front menu. And Benrey, in no known universe, could have ever been prepared for or predicted what he was about to witness next.

Tommy began to, in complete silence, breeze through every single level, with TAS-like speed and accuracy, all while never losing a life or missing a single goal. The sound of “Ready? Go!” followed by a triumphant “GOAL!” mere seconds later echoed throughout the empty breakroom, over and over again.

When Tommy got to a bonus stage, which required less concentration, he frowned and said, “I, I don’t know if I’m playing this right, Mr. Benrey. Wasn’t this supposed to make me um… Angry? I actually feel pretty, pretty good.”

Benrey tossed the chewed up paperclip behind him. “No don’t worry, man. This is great,” and noticed Tommy’s relieved smile. “Keep it up, buddy.”

Tommy turned his focus back on the game.  
Benrey was focused on Tommy.  
And speedrunning miracles were being made inside a tiny Black Mesa breakroom.

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is my very first fic!!! ive never written fic before but i love hlvrai so much i wanted to try :)  
> my twitter is @cosmivoyager and my tumblr is @tommycoolattasdunkindonuts
> 
> thank you for reading <3


End file.
